Due to some strange alignment of the stars (and a downturn in the economy) I have ended up with a pair of coldsaws. One is a 10" and the other a 12", both asian imports but decent quality. I know low speed coldsaws are demons on ferrous materials, but I would like to find a blade for non-ferrous that will give a good (as in almost milled) finish. This is variable speed between 30 and 60 rpm. I have been using a 1000rpm Porter Cable dry cut saw, and while it leaves a good finish I want to have something with better and more positionable material clamping. Anyone have any tips on blades or experience trying to do this? If it looks like this won't work, I may convert the 10" into a high speed saw, but just having to have one would make life simpler.

Jpfalt

01-18-2009, 03:04 AM

I have two low speed circular saws made by Shindaiwa and bought blades made specifically for "chip saws" on eBay. They are essentially zero rake 80 tooth carbide blades with triple chip ground blades. Essentially one tooth cuts the left side of the kerf, the following tooth cuts the right side of the kerf and the third tooth cuts the center of the kerf. The tooth sides appear to be straight and the cut surface finish in soft ferrous and non ferrous looks like a very smooth fly cut surface.

Your Old Dog

01-18-2009, 07:10 AM

Forrest saw blades make high end product for wood workers. They also make a line of blades for non-ferrous work but don't know if these will fill your need.

i have a kaltenbach cold saw for ali, HSS blade gives the best finish, TCT not as good but lasts better, 10" blade 3000 rpm
mark

MickeyD

01-19-2009, 12:58 AM

Thanks for the tip on the triple grind carbide blade, sounds a lot like what I have on my PC saw that gives such a good finish. I found some on Ebay that look good, but mine has a 40mm arbor but it looks like it can be swapped for a different one. Worst case is I will just have to enlarge a blade arbor hole and add some drive holes to make a standard blade fit.

lazlo

01-19-2009, 11:55 AM

Mike, why don't you take off that cheezy Chinese static inverter, and replace it with a VFD. Then you can overclock/underclock the motor from aluminum speeds and feeds to steel.

MickeyD

01-19-2009, 01:14 PM

I think that I have a 2 speed motor that will fit on it that would give more flexibility, I need to pull the existing one to see if it will work. I do have a little vfd that I thought about putting on it, but if I can get a clean cut in the same speed ballpark, that would just be a lot easier.

Scishopguy

01-19-2009, 04:19 PM

I have two low speed circular saws made by Shindaiwa and bought blades made specifically for "chip saws" on eBay. They are essentially zero rake 80 tooth carbide blades with triple chip ground blades. Essentially one tooth cuts the left side of the kerf, the following tooth cuts the right side of the kerf and the third tooth cuts the center of the kerf. The tooth sides appear to be straight and the cut surface finish in soft ferrous and non ferrous looks like a very smooth fly cut surface.

Freud makes a carbide blade ground in this configuration and it is billed as a laminate trimmer. Supposed to be less tooth loading on thin and fragile material. I used it mainly for engraving plastic ( making signs with the engravograph ) but it worked well on thicker plex and lexan sheets.